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What's Down, Doc?

Economists keep talking about things being "on hold." It's increasingly looking as if they mean it in the Wile E. Coyote sense of being frozen just after he's run off the cliff.

After the huge payroll drop on Friday of 308,000 jobs, cages were rattled. The unemployment rate ticked up only a tenth of a percentage point to 5.8%, but that understates the weakness in the labor market. For more texture to how bad a jobs market it is, look at the conference board survey, the Manpower survey, the employment component of...